A Real Live “Ferric Wheel”

Last week over in the IYC2011 blog, Rachel Pepling announced the chemistry blog carnival, which asks readers to post on their favorite chemical reaction. Accompanying the post was a fanciful drawing of a “ferrous wheel.”

I was immediately reminded of a story I wrote a long time ago about work in Steve Lippard’s lab at MIT. He and his coworkers had synthesized a “ferric wheel.” I found the illustration in the C&EN Archives:

The story, “Ferric Wheel Molecule Characterized At MIT,” appeared in the Dec. 24, 1990, issue of C&EN. That is a long time ago!

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The Safety Zone covers chemical safety issues in academic and industrial research labs and in manufacturing. It is intended to be a forum for exchange and discussion of lab and plant safety and accident information without the fanfare of a news article.